


Drabbles

by Torchwoodocd



Category: God's Own Country (2017)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-04 05:04:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14585568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Torchwoodocd/pseuds/Torchwoodocd
Summary: Drabbles featuring characters from Francis Lee's incredible film God's Own Country.I own nothing.  But the film has a special place in my heart, has brought my soul home to rest and allowed me to find to peace and comfort.  It has also inspired me apparently to write a few imagined scenes of my own. Please forgive me.Thank you Francis, for everything.





	1. The one with the rain.

\------The One With The Rain

It’s July. Supposedly summer; not that you’d know it by the downpour that lashes at the single glazing of the bathroom window, or makes the barn floors wet because the old wooden doors have more gaps and cracks than a net curtain.

‘Wet’ Martin mumbles as Johnny carefully cleans his nearest armpit.  
‘Mmm’ Johnny confirms. He knows his dad isn’t referring to himself but the weather conditions outside.  
‘Beasts’ Martin croaks as he tries to maneuver himself rather fruitlessly in the slidey bathtub.  
‘Gheorghe’s checking on them,’ Johnny tries to reassure his dad as he props him up in a slightly different contortion to allow access to the opposite armpit.  
‘Good lad.’ Martin’s head jerks a bit in what Johnny interprets as a nod of approval on Gheorghe’s efforts.

Johnny smiles to himself, a facial expression that once felt alien and odd but which he finds comes quite naturally now. Like when he catches Gheorghe’s eye across the dinner table. Or when Nan says ‘tell that lad of yours I’ve bought him his own tea towel so I didnae expect to find him using any o’mine!’ He’s not sure if its Nan’s referral to Gheorghe as ‘his lad’ or the fact that while it comes across as a warning about using her tea towels it’s actually a sign of accepting him into the fold because she bought him a tea towel that triggers the smile; perhaps it’s both, perhaps it doesn’t matter.

Johnny cleans his father’s chest, Martin squirms a bit and tugs as Johnny’s t-shirt.  
‘Shud, make honest man’ he manages with some effort, left eye focused on Johnny’s cheek, right eye not really focussed at all, hasn’t been for some months now.  
Johnny’s brow furrows a little as he pauses in his task to really look at his father’s face. This daily ritual of washing, usually silent has brought him closer to his father emotionally than he can ever remember. He doesn’t know if its the lighting in here this morning, the dull grey light coming through the rain reflected off the green of the bathroom, but Martin looks more pale and fragile and exposed.  
‘Life short.’ Martin huffs, ‘Love, precious.’  
‘Right’ Johnny replies, as he realises he’s been staring.  
‘Do right.’ Martin pleads strength in his left arm weakening as he loses grip on Johnny’s t-shirt and slips back into the bath. Johnny catches him before he slips so much his head submerges in the swallow water.

Martin is clean, dry, dressed and propped up in a chair in the dining room when Gheorghe makes his return from outside. He ruffles a hand through his soaked dark hair, it looks more askew afterwards than it did before and Johnny feels that smile reappearing on his face again and another newly acquired feeling warming his chest. There’s fidgeting and an unintelligible series of grunts from Martin as he attempts to communicate something at Johnny.  
‘Aw right dad, in me own time.’ Johnny says exasperated but there’s no real anger in his tone.  
Gheorghe looks between the pair of them and raises his eyebrows inquiringly at Johnny.  
‘Didnae mind him, I’ll fill ye in later.’ Johnny says beckoning Gheorghe through to the kitchen with a tilt of his head.  
There’s a huff and some more fidgeting from Martin as he manages to reorientated his head such that he looks like he’s pointedly refusing to look at Johnny. Gheorghe smiles a little to himself, the Saxby boys are closer but somethings never change.


	2. The one with the staircase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quite short, but it felt complete. These are not in chronological order (unlikely the way Francis shot the film). This particular chapter is set between the last two scenes of the film, its the boys returning to the Saxby farm after the coach trip.

‘ ‘am home.’ Johnny hollered as he entered the farmhouse. Gheorghe followed him in and neatly closed the door back in place.

There was footsteps on the stairs and Nan appeared through the little wooden door.

‘So it would appear’ she said ‘persuaded im to come back wi you I see.’ Her eye and head momentarily cast themselves over Gheorghe before returning to the subject of her questioning.

‘Aye’ A shy smile crept over Johnny’s face. Try as he might to hide it with a slight hang of his head and refusing to meet her eye, it was no good; his face positively glowed with happiness.  
Gheorghe stayed silent surveying the room managing to avoid making eye contact with Nan.

‘Right good. Well I don’t want either of you messing it up this time, do you hear me?” She shook a warning finger in turn at Johnny and Gheorghe.

Johnny’s face morphed into a mixture of an eye roll and sigh. He’d had his fair share of scoldings over the year from his Nan.  
Gheorghe in contrast made eye contact with Nan for the first time and said seriously ‘Yes. I want this to work Mrs Saxby.’  
‘Oh come on now lad, if you’re here to stay you’d best call me Deidre, or Nan, ‘ev’bdoy else does.’  
‘Nan.’ Gheorghe replied gently with a tiny incline of his head and a smile just visible at the corners of his mouth.

Nan fought back a smile. Gheorghe pretends not notice, they both know he has though. The gentle smile of his mouth reaches the corners of his eyes as it spreads across his face. That’s a pretty big declaration of acceptance and approval right there and he knows it. If the smile on Johny’s face is anything to go by he knows it too.

‘Right, stop standing here like a pair of smitten school boys,’ Nan rearranges her body warmer unnecessarily and takes herself off to the kitchen. ‘the beast will wants their tea like and with ye two back I ain't doing them tonight.’ She calls out.

‘C’me on then,’ Johnny says, ‘let drop this stuff upstairs and we can back to it.’  
‘After you’ Gheorghe nods towards the wooden doorway to the stairs.

He climbs up the little staircase, watching Johnny’s back ahead of him. Letting the scent of the Saxby household resonate in his nostril and fill his olfactory senses. He smiles to himself; this might just be home.


End file.
